Of dying children and a Holy Pakistan

November 11, 2014November 11, 2014

Driving home after a tiring day at work thinking about a hot home cooked dinner must be every man’s fantasy. So like any other day. Today was more hectic as it was one of the days when your schedule only allows you to have coffee but no lunch. Reaching home I quickly changed and sat down to start having a go at what was my first meal for the day. I have developed many bad habits . Again I am sure like any other male specimen out there. “Watching TV” is a must and for me whilst eating its an other bad habit I have developed over the years . Switching through the channels to get a quick grasp of real news apart from what the very Holy Sermon of his Excellency Imran Khan every day at the same time makes me wonder if there are any other real challenges we have in Pakistan than to make His Holiness Imran Khan the Prime Minister of Pakistan and forming a commission on election rigging. I am sure there are still serious issues out there due to the nature of us as Pakistanis beyond control of any government.

Anyways , as I started to get some real news. I saw two news primarily. Both touching. Both making me feel sick to my guts. First one was on the ongoing starvation issue in Thar and second one was the burning of the two Christian Pakistanis in Punjab in a brick kiln. The third was the rise of ISIS which I wrote about a few days ago and thankful for all the good comments on the same and fourth was of course on Imran Khan’s new threats and views. The rest of the news was on Karachi and so on.. Suddenly I felt that the hunger which made me so anxious to reach home was gone. After I saw news as to how many children have died due to malnutrition in Thar which is one the richest regions of Pakistan due to their immense quantity of coal reserves discovered there and that too in a Nuclear powered nation. Also lets not forget Thar is part of the province of Sind where there is a new specie of a politician called Bilawal Zardari going around beating his chest on his loyalty to Sindh and its inhabitants and may be spending enough in one day on his daily pocket expenses which could be good enough to provide for the dying and hungry in the effected area today.

Ironically, he leads a party whose Chief Minister himself needs some support due to his age and who do not feel the need as he slept through the ceremony when he went to attend. Some say that he was sleeping. My assessment is that he was thinking with his eyes closed as to how can he solve this problem or maybe he was so ashamed of his character and failure to lead that he cannot look into the eyes of the locals. There is a third possibility that maybe he was dreaming on how everything is fine and did not want to wake up to a night mare . Anything can happen people when you have one glass full of you know what I mean? Also, Mr. Bilawal’s party has an information Minister who thinks that so what if one or two children have died on daily basis in Thar whilst 600 die daily in Pakistan and to his innocent level of thinking he cannot still understand that why this is being made an issue out. Maybe its time to stop giving this Minister some food so that the fat of ignorance which has encompassed his brain can melt away and he can have a reality check in his life. More ironically the so called new specimen of Sindhi leadership in face of Bilawal has chosen to play table tennis with Malala during this time in UK instead of being amongst his people after a photo shoot. I think he would be back there for a great natural backdrop during his next Sindh Festival. More ironic and sad is that whilst Malala Fund is doling out money to other charities in Sudan, Nigeria and Palestine . She could not see the plight of his own dying people in Sind. Wonder if this even came up during the chat between Bilawal and Malala or was it all too social. So I wonder who would the Sind government look to now to end the drought in Thar where I agree they cannot fight the nature but at least ensure that the wheat stock going there is pure wheat instead of a mixture with the sand of Sindhu Desh in it for its people to eat.

It shocks me to see that why cannot these PPP politicians cant give one month of their salary which they earn so unfairly to help the plight of the dying people of Thar as anyways I am sure . They would be there pursuing them to sell their lands at cheap prices to them in return for a bag of wheat so that when the coal development commences over there . They all become billionaires. Now this might be an assumption and could be true as well (as per my sources) . Only God knows.

Sometimes I miss Chaudhary Iftikhar the Samosa Suo Motto Justice (SSMJ) as if he was there may be he would have taken a suo motto on the situation of Thar for pure documentation and publicity purpose at the least . Now even that is not happening. The new command at the respect courts are too shy of all the blessed exposure the former Chief Justice got himself. Their ambitions might not be very ambitious. Looks like the lady of luck have shut off their eyes towards people of Thar and Sindh so has the lady of justice.

On the other hand . Shamefully another incident happened where a couple was burned in a kiln by people on their own without even bothering our legal system for a crime which should be discussed further in the parliament and court of law . Sitting with my friends from many nationalities in the office earlier in the day asking me of this incident made me wonder of what do I tell them. “No its not true . These people committed suicide” or “No I come from Karachi” or “No its all western and Indian propaganda as this must be done by foreign hands” or may be I should have told them “I live in a country where civilization is still evolving and rule of law is only to be used in public speeches”. What is more ironic that his Holiness Imran Khan who thinks that with him in power these incidents would not have happened chose to use these incidents as rhetoric but did not have the character to go all out and criticize the incident in Punjab. Maybe he remembers what happened to Salman Taseer and his son who is still kidnapped. I am sure he do not want to be martyred before taking the oath as the Prime Minister of Pakistan.

Another week gone by in Pakistan where I can see the gap between the haves and have not’s are expanding. MQM is the only party outside the government who has gone in to do relief effort in Thar which is commendable. But where are the rest of the Sind’s sons including the nationalist parties? “I would die rather giving away Sind” is quoted by Bilawal a lot now a days but he is forgetting whilst his sorry life lives on . His poor Sindhis are dying of starvation.

At the same time the Prime Minister of Pakistan and the Chief Minister of Pakistan sorry Punjab went to Peoples Republic of China our time tested friends. The idea is to get more roads built accessing the warm water ports. More power generation in Punjab . Sorry Pakistan. Wonder whose gas they are going to use ? More investment in any industry which makes them richer. Of course , they need to pay a lot of bills and dues. Some say a large payment has been done to close one political front. Of course the money has come from the oil price differential that the government has saved by making us pay more to fund their efforts to keep them in government. Now of course maybe more money maybe required in December 2014 or January 2015 who knows? Some one has to foot the bill. So I am sure our worthy Finance Minister would be hoarding dollars from the open market . Only to sell them and increase dollar to rupee parity to finance the pay offs to neutralize their opponents in the near or not to near future. To bring it back to stability before the next elections if they survive that long.

Anyways shamefully for me . My hunger for food died the other day. But the hunger to see such leadership kicked out has gone further up on the scale. So what if we are reaching 200 million of population. Doesn’t mean that we become playing field for terrorists, corrupt politicians and our enemies to target and kill or let die. Again the common denominator is Pakistan Army who is seen serving the people of Pakistan left right and center. Wonder if they have to do everything whilst out politicians enjoy in the air-conditioned confines of the parliament or their homes or containers ? Than why not Pakistan Army then…….. Pakistan Zindabad!